If you would like to attend, please RSVP by emailing Professor Bertjan Verbeek at bertjan.verbeek [at] ru.nl (bertjan[dot]verbeek[at]ru[dot]nl).
The U.S.-China and EU-China relationships are two key anchors of the global order, yet they face significant uncertainties as “decoupling” and “derisking” become the norm. This seminar offers a unique opportunity to explore these dynamics with two prominent Chinese scholars: Dr. Chenghao Sun (Tsinghua University) and Dr. Biao Zhang (China University of Political Science and Law).
In the seminar, Dr. Chenghao Sun provides a forward-looking assessment of China-U.S. relations under President Trump’s second term, highlighting both the risks of heightened confrontation and the possibilities for managed competition and limited cooperation. Dr. Biao Zhang examines the evolving EU-China relationship, focusing specifically on the EU’s growing use of extraterritorial sanctions following the Ukraine War and their impact on commercial actors in China. This seminar is especially valuable for those seeking to gain insights into the Chinese perspective and to engage directly with scholars offering firsthand analysis of these critical relationships.
Dr. Chenghao Sun:
Dr. SUN Chenghao is a fellow, and head of U.S.-Europe program at Center for International Security and Strategy (CISS), Tsinghua University. His research interests include U.S. domestic and foreign policy, China-U.S. relations, transatlantic relations, AI and International security, etc. He is a member of Munich Young Leaders with Munich Security Conference, visiting scholar at Yale Law School (2024), visiting fellow at Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (2025) and fellow at Arms Control Negotiation Academy (2025-2026). Dr. Sun has co-authored dozens of reports and books. His latest books Profound Changes Unseen in a Century and the U.S.-Europe Alliance was published in 2023, and The Gravity of Power in the White House: The National Security Council (1947-2019) in 2020. He is the Top 1% Highly Cited Scholar (2024, 2025) in China according to China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). Dr. Sun is Council Member of the Chinese Association of American Studies and founder of the Newsletter ChinAffairsplus.
Dr. Biao Zhang:
Biao Zhang is associate professor in international politics and head of the department at China University of Political Science and Law. He is interested in China-Europe relations with a particular focus on economic security. He has published in Asia Europe Journal, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Chinese Political Science Review, Comparative European Politics, Journal of Chinese Political Science, Southeastern Europe (forthcoming), and Third World Quarterly. He is associate editor of Asia Europe Journal, siting on the editorial board of Politics and Security Governance.